Enthralled... by me???

Maybe I cried because I'm just a girl. Maybe it was because it was what I needed to hear most. It may have been because it was the most beautiful love letter I've ever read. Or maybe, maybe I cried because I was realizing the love my Father... my lover.

I just finished reading through Song of Solomon and, rather than being squirmish and shocked at what I read, I meditated over the words and related the lovers to myself and Jesus - as Mike Bickle (author of "Passion for Jesus") suggested. Looking at it in this manner was so much more meaningful than it has ever been before. Throughout the poem, the beloved was beside herself, continuously searching for her lover. She was so in love with Him that she couldn't help but to think of Him every moment of every day. In turn, when the lover (Jesus) saw her passion and deep desire for Him, when He beckoned and she came running, when He hid and watched her take ever pain to find Him... He was absolutely enthralled by her in every way. Though He compared her with things I wouldn't necessarily think flattering, the important point is that He couldn't stop complimenting her and gazing at her beauty.

"You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glace of your eyes." -Song of Solomon 4:9

Oh how it makes my heart thump to think that Jesus thinks the same of me! So many times I think about my flaws - everything that's physically wrong with me, everything I'm spiritually failing in, everything I don't match up with... and how it must make so ugly, especially in His sight. But then I read of how Jesus feels about His bride - me. How He's absolutely captivated by her; how He can't keep His eyes off of her; how He's overwhelmed to be in her presence... despite my lack of beauty! The truth is, He doesn't even see my flaws. He sees my passion for Him... even when it isn't overwhelming. He sees my desire to find Him, to pursue Him, to love Him... and He is ultimately pleased!

"Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number, but my dove, my perfect one, is unique... How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights!" -Song of Solomon 6:9; 7:6

Jesus is enraptured with me and calls me beautiful. Not because of anything I am or have done, but because of His overwhelming love, because of everything He is and everything that He has done. And since what He thinks of me is all that matters, this overwhelming and uncalled-for love/pleasure/desire for me means absolutely the world to me.